AFRICAN VULTURES BULLETIN
BirdLife Africa Partnership
September— October 2016
PARTNER UPDATES ON GROUND ACTIONS
Morocco– In Morocco, information available about vultures and the rest of northwest Africa is decades old. Observations of the globally endangered
Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) in Morocco become so rare in the 21st century that some authors considered the species on the verge of
local extinction as a breeding species. The Moroccan population of the species has undergone a marked decline since the 1980s (when it was esti-
mated to number between 500-1000 pairs), but lack of recent studies means we didn’t know much about where the species has really gone and
where it’s still breeding. For more details about this aspect, please see: “The plight of the Egyptian Vulture and hopes for the future” In English and
French. GREPOM set up an expedition in 2014 to the Middle Atlas Mountains to search the species in the region. During the survey we found new
occupied breeding territories and a communal roosting site, the first of its kind in Northwest Africa, which hosted 40 vultures of different ages. The
results of this study were published in Ostrich journal.
In 2016, with the support of the African Bird Club, we continued our monitoring in the Middle Atlas region. During this year, we studied better and
confirmed the importance of the communal roosting site discovered in 2014, we also found that Egyptian Vultures use other nearby cliffs for roost-
ing as well (especially during the day). As is the case elsewhere, in Morocco, the species was known to frequent rubbish dumps in the past, but none
were found during the survey. In the neighboring Algeria, the species still frequently photographed at rubbish dumps (S. Telailia, pers. comm.), sever-
al reasons could explain this difference in the use of landfills by the species in two North African countries. We did however observe them soaring in
search for carcasses and also feeding on insects on recently mowed fields.
In addition to three breeding territories known since the previous work, we found six new territories in 2016. The work involved also gathering infor-
mation about the threats to the species and local knowledge about this and other raptors. Some new data about other species were also gathered.
We would like to thank the African Bird Club for the financial support in 2016 without which this work would not have been possible.
Zambia- Two farmers have been identified in the bid to create “Vulture safe Zones” in Chisamba area where livestock farming is extensive. These
farms attract different species of vultures and they also have large trees that are suitable for roosting and used as breeding sites. BirdWatch Zambia
is in the process of developing guidelines on how to effectively implement Vulture Safe Zones in the African context to ensure that farms are safe for
vultures. Vulture population surveys and community awareness and engagement activities particularly with people working in the Livestock farms is
on-going.
RESEARCH AND MONITORING
Ghana— Ghana Wildlife Society are carrying out Hooded Vulture surveys in Ho-
Volta region, Kumasi-Ashanti region and Sekondi Takoradi—Western Region of
Ghana, through support of a small grant from the RSPB/BirdFair Endangered Spe-
cies fund. More surveys on the species will be carried out before the end of the
year.
Nature Kenya and the peregrine fund have completed the first phase of an agro-
chemical use survey in Masai Mara from two major towns around the reserve. A
second survey phase to cover an additional four major towns around the Masai
Mara reserve is ongoing. The survey is targeting agro-vet shops and households
through questionnaires to collect information.
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Photo: Vultures feeding at a carcass at an IBA site on a farm in Chisamba,
Zambia, now being targeted as a Vulture Safe Zone.
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VULTURE CONSERVATION STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
Vulture Multi-Species Action Plan to conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (Vulture MsAP): The Africa Regional MsAP workshop is scheduled to take
place next week from 18– 21 October 2016 in Dakar, Senegal. 50 participants have been confirmed from various BirdLife partners, conservation and
research NGO experts and governments being represented. The workshop will take place at the Ngor Diarama Hotel alongside the 14th
Pan-
African Ornithological Congress (PAOC 14) in LION ROOM. Day 1 of the workshop on the 18th will be a series of presentations from different
countries and vulture experts from around Africa and will be open to the public. The agenda for day 1 and participants list can be found here and
the MsAP background note can be found here.
POLICY AND LEGISLATION ACTIONS FOR VULTURES
Vulture Side Event at CITES COP17:
The side event was successfully conducted on Monday 26th
September 2016 with 65 participants, majority from governments. The event was chaired
by Botswana Head of Delegation and had panellists from CMS, Government of Nigeria and Kavango-Zambezi Trans frontier Conservation Area. The
plight facing vultures, particularly in regard for trade in traditional medicine and the impact of vulture declines due to elephant poaching. Panellists
responded to a number of questions posed to them by chair, followed by feedback from participants. Key recommendations included the need to
work holistically with other sectors including agriculture and health; the need to do more research to show the trade link as a threat to vultures to
help push for up-listing old world vulture species to Appendix I of CITES, the need for increased government—led awareness creation and local com-
munity engagement to be heightened. The event was picked-up by Washington Post available here.
PUBLIC AWARENESS ON THE PLIGHT AND VALUE OF VULTURES
Nature Kenya at Trade Expo: Nature Kenya has developed communi-
cation materials to help clearly articulate the plight of vultures across
the country. Posters have been distributed to various community
groups, conservation stakeholders, schools and government agencies.
Nature Kenya also used the opportunity of the Nairobi Trade Fair which
took place from 3 to 7 October, 2016 to reach out to over 15 school
groups and over 1000 individuals to raise awareness about the issues
N.B: If you have any interesting or newsworthy vulture updates please
send them to: [email protected]
Photo; Nature Kenya staff during the Nairobi trade fare with two school
groups talking about the importance of vultures.
Vintage Air Rally—London Launch 11th of October, 2016
The launch of the VintageAirRally in London provided a number of great
opportunities to raise awareness and funding for African vultures. An
aircraft exhibition was organized in the morning where Marion Klein
(Fundraising Officer for Africa, BLI) and Shaun Hurrell (Communication
Officers, BLI) had a number of opportunities to raise awareness about
the vulture crisis through informal chats with people coming to see the
vintage airplane and exchanges with the press. In the evening, a gala
dinner took place. Phil Woollam (Director of Fundraising and Marketing,
BLI) made a presentation on the vulture crisis and showed the “I am
misunderstood” video. All participants seemed to be strongly impacted
by the video. During his presentation, Phil also introduced the Vin-
tageAirRally BirdLife platform through which each of the rally crews will
raise funds to support BirdLife’s work to save vultures in Africa. After the
dinner, an auction was organized where seven prizes, offered by the
VintageAirRally team and some of the rally crews, were auctioned. A to-
tal of 9025 Pounds has been raised through these auctions. Some inter-
esting discussions were had with guests such as the High Commissioner
of Botswana and the Ambassador of Egypt during the gala dinner.
Photo; Shuan Hurrell standing with the BirdLife-VintageAirRally Vulture
banner and a vintage plane during the launch in London.